BLCA c43s02
Info Because Love Conquers All (Summary - List of stories) . Turiya, Beyond Waking, Dream And Sleep, Self And Non-Self << previous stage | Stage 7 of 7 | next stage >> Unrequited Love << previous chapter | Chapter 43 of 48 | next chapter >> << previous scene | Scene 2 of 2 | next scene >> Summary * Location: *Participants: *Time: *Summary: Text That night, Apple Bloom and Scarlet Sage came to talk to Scrivener and Luna, and Twilight Shadow excused herself to give them the feeling of privacy... even though she could easily stay aware of what was going on, and already knew the details. She smiled to herself as she walked quietly through the halls of Enstasis, wanting to give the young girls their security all the same, however, at least until they were ready to talk about it. "But I don't think they'll take it too badly. Sure, it's hard at first to get used to a new-you, but... Apple Bloom didn't look too afraid. Then again, for now the changes are pretty minor... after they really start becoming adults..." Twilight mused to herself, looking down thoughtfully as she walked through he halls, then she blushed a little when a Nibelung gave her an odd look. "Uh. Sorry. Just. Thinking out loud." She hurried onwards, heading quickly through the corridors until she finally stepped out through the open double doors and into the night air of the courtyard, taking a long breath and gazing upwards with a smile. Enstasis was still being repaired after the assault on it a month ago and the skeletal frameworks of scaffolding, support structures, and pulley systems added a strange, almost fantastic sense to the slight of them outlined against the stars and resting here and there throughout the building, like they were only actors in some movie... a movie Twilight direly hoped had a happy ending. She quietly strode through the grasses, glancing silently at the gallows: the noose had been taken down, but the stage still stood ominous guard, the trapdoor closed and the lever gleaming in the light... and then she looked up sharply as she realized there was a figure reclining on the edge of the tall structure, kicking his legs gently as he leaned back and stared up at the stairs, saying in a soft, calm voice: "Gallows, noun. A stage for the performance of miracle plays, in which the leading actor is translated to Valhalla. In this country the gallows is chiefly remarkable for the number of ponies that escape it. But I fear that may be an outdated definition from a dictionary I'm sure that Scrivener Blooms has a copy of somewhere... but I suppose you can't really blame the accountant downstairs for everything. There was no foolish old stallion to trick this time, after all... and our dear friend Kvasir was much more martyr than Tony ever was, Imaginarium or not." Twilight Shadow looked silently up at Discombobulation, who smiled back down at her as he knitted his fingers and talons together in his lap, saying softly: "So I've come back, Twilight, for a little while anyway. Now that everything's over... what a hectic time this year has been! Why, I wasn't even to keep up with any of my favorite television shows, or respond to any emails. Not that I ever get many, mind you... mostly silly advertisements. But mostly, I'd just like to put my feet up for as long as they demand rest." "We could have used your help here. And... I missed you. A lot." Twilight said finally, and she sat back as Discombobulation looked down at her softly. "You're a friend. I lost a few friends this last while... made some, sure, but... lost some, too." "Balance in all things, Twilight Sparkle... balance in all things." Discombobulation paused, then he slipped off the gallows and smiled as he landed in front of her, gazing down at her kindly as he said softly: "You should be thankful for losing those friends of yours, cruel as it must sound. But pain teaches us much more than pleasure... I'm willing to bet that you appreciate all the more those around you who are true to you and yours, yes? But perhaps I'm just being prickly, like a cactus. Trying to comfort with a hug but instead giving you quite some nasty scratches." Twilight smiled faintly, looking up at the Draconequus and replying quietly: "My name is... Twilight Shadow now." "Don't be silly now, Twilight Sparkle. I can call myself Snickerdoodle but that doesn't make it my name, not does it make me a candy bar." Discombobulation said mildly, flicking a wrist before he meditatively rubbed at his chin. "I think that's what a Snickerdoodle is. I'm not entirely sure now that I think about it. Very well, I can call myself a lollipop but that doesn't mean sucking on me will give you a sugar rush." A pause, and then he cleared his throat. "That did not come out quite correct either." The Lich only shook her head slowly, however, laughing a bit as she glanced up at him quietly. "Well, a lot's changed. Come inside, we'll talk about it." "Inside, outside, it's all the same." Discombobulation shrugged, sighing softly as he gazed up thoughtfully at the sky above. "But I did quite like wandering... and I might be tempted to go on another pilgrimage again shortly. I will be honest, my friend... I have kept an eye and an ear and very rarely a nose or finger on what's been happening here, and it does not... entirely agree with me. I am a creature of chaos, after all... of the neutral, of the... shadow, if you will allow me to make a half-pun, half-flattery, and entirely-unrelated-to-you remark." The chimerical creature bowed politely to her, then he straightened and continued softly: "But suffocating darkness is as unappealing to me as blinding light. And this castle is blanketed in darkness... darkness with rules, and laws and secrets, and... well, other things that make me rather concerned. Bad things. Dangerous things. Oh, it's not that I'm unwilling to give it a try, but much like certain things... chocolate pudding, for example... I know very well before I try it there's no way I'll like it." "I've seen you eat chocolate pudding before." Twilight said mildly, and Discombobulation gave her a pointed look, and the Lich sighed a little and lowered her head before she gritted her teeth, then she looked up and said quietly: "I don't want you to go. I don't want you to... get here just to leave again, it's been more than a year..." "But I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date, and if I don't get there in time it may well be off with my head." Discombobulation replied seriously, then he reached up and almost gently pushed on the side of his own head, knocking it rolling off the end of his neck. It flipped over in midair, and he caught it easily in his eagle talon, holding his upside-down head up towards her as she said kindly: "Madness comes and madness goes, after all. The only truth of the matter is that you can't go home again, just like the poet said." "I'm never away from my home, Discombobulation. My home isn't a place, a city, a country. It's with the people I love, my family. My trusted friends." Twilight replied empathetically, and Discombobulation bobbed his head in an awkward upside-down nod before he tossed it easily upwards, and it landed neatly back in place on the end of his neck as if it had never been removed. "You... you understand that your home is with us, right? That you're still our friend, right?" Discombobulation smiled softly at this, reaching up to touch his own chest and saying softly: "That may very well always be true, Twilight Sparkle, and I appreciate it from the depths of my heart, I do... but all the same, look at this." He reached forwards, quietly tapping against the stitches on her face, and Twilight blushed a bit as each stitch made a sound like a piano key as he tapped his fingers against them, playing a slow, sad melody as he said softly: "A pretty pony who died to impress and bind herself to the people she loved, losing bits and pieces of herself in the process, making her conscience as faded as an old oil painting. Who was killed, in fact, by the very people she loved and admired so; a King and Queen who think themselves about the rest of the world, and far be it from me to lay judgment upon them for thinking and declaring that because yes, yes, they are. I agree that they are stronger than us, perhaps even that they are superior beings... but does one being superior mean the other must be inferior? If it's true, then aren't all newborns worthless? Why, all they do is eat and poop and cry and make other ponies socially awkward when parents ask them to tell them what they think of their baby." He paused, then brushed his fingers along her stitching, playing out an entire scale before drawing his hand away and sighing softly. "Coldly, cruelly, logically, babies are worthless and are an unsound investment unless you have tutors, mentors, and a whip to mold that little lump of clay into a work of art who, as an adult, will benefit society as a whole in some way and not just flop his way through school to spend his nights getting drunk and his days working as nothing but a spinning cog in a broken machine. But that's exactly what I like about ponies: whether they are raised as machines for the best possible outcome or by mister-two-point-five-kids-Average-Joe or by slovenly slops and his limp dishrag, logic doesn't mean squat. Logically, Twilight Sparkle, we shouldn't be here. This makes no sense. This was not the way the story was supposed to go and when it's all over it'll probably turn out to be nothing but a midsummer night's dream." He fell silent, looking down and closing his eyes as he rubbed his hands together almost nervously for a moment, then said gently, quietly: "Every fiber of my being tells me that staying here would not be beneficial to my health. You see, chaos and logic are opposites, Twilight, but so many opposites run parallel to one-another, so many extremes run so quickly, so violently in the opposing direction to one another that they go all the way around the world and crash headlong at the same destination. What Scrivener Blooms and Luna are doing here... I smell trouble on the horizon, like wet dog... except instead of wet with water it's wet with fire." "Then stay. Help us. They listen to you, we listen to you." Twilight pleaded, stepping forwards, and Discombobulation winced a little, raising his hands and stepping backwards. "Just see for yourself, things... things aren't that bad, don't have to be that bad! Scrivy and Luna are so strong, so... so wonderful, if only people would take the time to look and see..." "Yes, yes. The same thing has been said about many political-social-religious movements throughout history. They all have a tendency to end up the same way, though, with a lot of gas... and I don't mean fart jokes." Discombobulation said mildly, holding up a finger, and then he sighed a little as he looked moodily over the face of Enstasis, saying softly: "But I can stay for a little while, maybe a few hours, maybe a few days. See the sights, pretend I'm a tourist. Many tourists visit dictatorships, war-torn countries, lawless places... why, I'm quite certain that if you had a tour bus to Helheim, it'd be full within the week. See the screaming sinners, smell the ice-roasted flesh, and-" "I don't want you leaving again." Twilight Shadow interrupted quietly but firmly, looking up at the Draconequus, and now Discombobulation frowned a little as he looked down at her, tilting his head slightly before the Lich smiled faintly as her horn began to glow. "Sorry." She snapped her horn suddenly, firmly upwards, and Discombobulation winced and stepped back as he quickly rose an arm almost too late in front of his face, a blast of blue and purple lightning hammering into this and sending him staggering backwards with a curse as shocks rippled through his entire form. Then Twilight Shadow winced and stumbled backwards, magical recoil twisting through the Lich's form before she looked coldly, calmly up at him as Discombobulation rose his arm... and then simply stared stupidly. A band of gold had formed around his arm, and Discombobulation frowned as he clawed at this with his talon, then snapped his fingers... and cursed in shock as electricity ripped over his body instead of the armlet vanishing, staggering backwards and looking stunned before Twilight said quietly: "I'm sorry. But I don't want to lose another friend, I don't want you running away... and I guess... I missed that connection we used to have. Knowing you were always there... well, this way, you can always be there again. You can wander across Equestria, but you'll know when I call... and you'll come if I order you to." She looked up, and her eyes were sorrowful, resolute, and unapologetic all at once, and Discombobulation shook his head weakly before he touched the golden band and then stared disbelievingly at the Lich. "You... this is an enslavement enchantment." "And only myself, Luna, or Scrivener will be able to remove it... well, magically, at least. Physically... you'd have to cut your arm off. I know how your magic works, Bob, I've had a long time to study it because I was always scared it would come to this... but I don't want to lose any more friends. And I don't want you running away... you're not a coward, you don't need to be a coward." Twilight said softly, closing her eyes and lowering her head forwards. "Please don't... cut it off, though. I'd chase you through all of Equestria." "I feel both horrified and touched. This is what being a wanted criminal must feel like." Discombobulation said quietly, still staring at the simple-looking armlet of gold... the armlet that would serve as a beacon to Twilight if he did try to run away, and... "I suppose if I disobey you, you can punish me through this as well?" "But I never would. I never would, not unless you tried to run away." Twilight said empathetically, stepping forwards and gazing up at him pleadingly. "Please understand, I'm doing this for your own good, so you'll stop and see that everything's okay here, and everything is going to be okay. I missed you, we all missed you, we wondered where you were and... after losing Applejack and Rainbow Dash, knowing what's going to happen to them... I just can't stand the thought of losing you too. Because you're right. Losing friends did make me understand and cherish those who I still have here all the more." Twilight stepped forwards, leaning up and hugging him tightly around the waist, and the Draconequus only looked mutely down at her as the Lich murmured softly against him: "Be yourself. But be here, too. That's all I want and all I ask. And one day, after you understand, I'll take the enchantment off. I'll even let you go on little trips for a week or so here or there, but otherwise I need you here. We need you here. You're our friend." "Friend..." Discombobulation laughed shortly, then he closed his eyes and whispered: "More like fool. I... well, Twilight Shadow, I wish we had met under pleasant circumstances. I understand that you're the successor to Twilight Sparkle, then?" The Lich smiled faintly as she drew back, looking quietly up at him and replying softly: "I didn't want to resort to this either, honestly. And I am... different, yes. I am Twilight Shadow, and that's more than just... a surface change. No... no pun intended." She smiled again up at the chimerical creature, but Discombobulation only looked silently down at her, rubbing slowly at the golden armlet before she closed her eyes and murmured: "I got scared. I panicked, and... I guess that mixed up with this... well, I guess I have Luna's assertiveness and Scrivener's control issues, since... I'm bound to them and all. I know I've become... more like them, and they encourage me and help me evolve... but I do still make mistakes sometimes. I thought the undead were emotionless... I didn't understand until now that... how much I feel." Twilight Shadow stepped back hesitantly, then she shook her head before smiling and flicking her horn, and the golden manacle around Discombobulation's arm glowed faintly before becoming invisible. The Draconequus looked moodily down at his limb, still able to feel out the shape of it with his eagle talon as he muttered: "If you're having undead problems, I feel bad for you hon, I've got ninety-nine problems but being a Lich ain't one." The violet mare only sighed at this, then she shook her head and turned, saying finally: "Come on inside. Let's go talk to Scrivener and Luna and the others, you'll feel better when you settle in here." "I feel like saying 'no' just to be as troublesome and sulky as possible." Discombobulation mumbled, but he sighed and lowered his head, following and closing his eyes tightly as he fell into step behind her, and she gazed over her shoulder at him softly as he grumbled: "But I also have no wish to indulge either your apparent interests in bondage and electrical play." "Come on, it's... it's not that bad. I just need you not to go running across Equestria. You aren't a slave, you still have a lot of freedom, you'll be allowed to wander... but I needed a way to track you, to... to make sure you didn't vanish for another year again. You're very important to me. This will help me keep you safe." Twilight replied soothingly, and then she grimaced with Discombobulation blew a loud raspberry at her, crossing his arms grumpily... but what hurt more was the way he was looking at her like she was a stranger, as she said in a harsher voice than intended: "Look, it's not as bad as when we first met, is it? You were a literal slave to me then!" "Was I truly? When I was given to you – or rather, Twilight Sparkle – by Discord's little prank, I had to listen to her every order, her every thought, her every command, but it was not she who enslaved me, and nor was it Discord: I enslaved myself to her, insulted by the fact she was honestly offering me freedom from the first moment I stepped into her life. I served her, but I never once slaved for her." Discombobulation retorted moodily. "I may have been called a slave, but did that make me a slave? Did we not just discuss the fact that names have as much influence on the state of an object as a caterpillar influences a mountain by its climb? "And now, Twilight Shadow, the first thing you tell me is that you want me to act like I am free. To speak freely, dance around freely, use my powers freely, and that you will let me travel freely within reason, but I am chaos; what is reason to chaos?" Discombobulation snorted and looked up at the ceiling with a grumble, gritting his teeth for a moment before he continued sharply: "You aren't honestly offering me freedom. You threw me in chains, and then you tell me, 'just pretend the chains aren't there,' and I cannot think of a more atrocious enslavement than that!" Twilight was silent... and then she turned her head forwards, closing her eyes as she said softly: "You just need time to think. To understand that I mean what I said, all I want is to help you and keep an eye on you and to make sure you don't run away like a coward again. Because, Discombobulation, if I really didn't care about you, didn't want to be your friend instead of your master, and wanted to put that manacle to full use, I could just as easily drain your powers or use it to hurt you, now couldn't I?" "Watch out, we got a badass over here!" Discombobulation rose his hands and waved them violently, and Twilight Shadow glared over her shoulder at him, her eyes flashing dangerously as the Draconequus said moodily: "I don't like you as much as I liked Twilight Sparkle. And I have a bad feeling you're not going to grow on me like the demon did." "Fine, then just go away and we'll talk about this later!" Twilight snapped, and Discombobulation winced a bit as he stumbled backwards, the Lich rounding on him furiously as the stitches over her features pulsed. "I'm trying to help you! Look at you, you're weak enough that a binding spell can lock you down and hurt you... whether your strength recovered or not, you're still weaker than you used to be and I can tell Fafnir's energy is still hurting you after all this time! How the hell else am I supposed to help you when you... you... y-you just deflect or run away..." Twilight shivered, clenching her eyes shut and bowing her head forwards, and Discombobulation stood silently for a moment in front of her, raising a hand as his jaw worked before he sighed a little and said quietly: "War is peace. Slavery is freedom. Ignorance is strength. No matter how often you repeat these things, no matter how you train society into believing them, at the end of the day something will always happen to trigger an epiphany: that no, all this can lead to is dystopia and destruction. Not disharmony: destruction. Why? Because of course, these concepts will eventually lead to the ultimate, infallible logical conclusion that so many fallen heroes have come to: the only answer to all problems is death. Because the dead cannot be hurt, cannot be made sad, cannot argue, cannot fight, cannot experience all the sorrows and pains the living do. Nor can they experience the joys or meaning in life, but that is easy to rebut, isn't it? The dead have no need for that. The dead are beyond such silly things. The dead are experiencing nirvana: the blissful oblivion. "But you used to be smarter than that, Twilight Sparkle, to fall for such a deadly and alluring argument, and I think even now you are too. Because you're dead, and yet illogically you insist on continuing to feel, to think, to love. You died... to feel alive. You smote logic with mad heroine passion and knocked it flat on its ass, and that is what makes it hurt so much to see you..." Discombobulation closed his eyes, slowing reaching up to touch his own chest before he nodded solemnly once. "Very well. I'll stay here with you. But because you need me... and angry or not, I am still your friend. Also, in spite of being very upset with you I'm all the same rather impressed you pulled off such a high-level spell. I feel like someone who set up camp in a thought-invulnerable position and ended up getting taken out by a knife thrown from across the map by some very-fortunate or very-obsessed nerd." He paused meditatively, then looked down at his arm and shook his head slowly before glancing up at Twilight as the Lich looked up at him silently, smiling faintly as she whispered: "I don't mind when you call me that. But I am Twilight Shadow now." "I hope that you learn one day you can be both. Like that guy who dresses up in the bat costume with all the gadgets by night but is a millionaire philanthropist by day. One may be a psychotic crusader who regularly pummels people to the point of senselessness and on occasion goes a little too far, but the other usually does well in making up for his alter ego's transgressions." Discombobulation paused meditatively. "I meant billionaire. Millionaires are so last year." Then the Draconequus straightened, put his hands together, and bowed politely before he vanished in a burst of white smoke, his voice echoing quietly around her: "Be careful how hard and how far you run to impress them, Twilight Shadow, to be more like them. You of all ponies should know... Scrivener Blooms and Luna are very fond of each other, but not always particularly fond of themselves." Then he was gone, and Twilight was left sitting silently in front of the doors leading into the garden by herself, her head bowed, her eyes closed, unsure of what to say or even what to do. She sat there for almost twenty minutes, her thoughts racing, wondering what she had just done, why she had lashed out so badly, how much she had put at risk... and most of all, whether or not she should trust his words or if he was just sowing further confusion on instinct or by chaotic accident. Yet she knew either way there was always a message in his words, a method to his madness, and she didn't think she'd ever heard him lie... misdirect, twist the truth, spread gossip and rumor, certainly, but never outright lie... But finally, the doors behind her opened, revealing Luna, smiling and gentle even in her leathers, and Scrivener Blooms was behind her at full Tyrant Wyrm size, leaning his head forwards and gazing down at her with such affection in those luminescent sapphire eyes. The Lich smiled awkwardly at them in return, and Luna shook her head slowly before she said soothingly: "Come, Twilight. Thou art troubled: tell us what preys upon thou so." And Twilight Shadow smiled a bit, nodding slowly as she gladly strode into the Garden, embracing Luna firmly before heading towards the Tyrant Wyrm with absolute trust and adoration in her eyes. No matter what, she trusted them most in all the world, after all. Her friends, her other family were important... but Scrivener and Luna were her life, literally and figuratively, and she was content with that. Glorified in it even, and was eager to share with them, to know what they had to say, to think... Above, Discombobulation watched from the balcony, leaning over it moodily as he rubbed absently at the invisible manacle clasped tight around his orange-furred limb, and he closed his eyes as he murmured softly: "No matter how wrong or right it is... I can't help but admire it. I only hope, Twilight Sparkle, that you remember how important you were to Luna and Scrivener... because Twilight Shadow seems content to let them eclipse her better judgment entirely." With that, the Draconequus leaned back, then shook his head slowly as he vanished from sight to find a comfortable pocket of empty space amidst the pall of all-covering darkness he felt growing over Enstasis. Category:Transcript Category:Story